Just this past month home owners in Orange County have been leaving the market quickly.  Greatly lowering the amount of homes for sale on the market.  This trend is often seen due to the holiday season approaching and many home owners not wanting to bother and hassle with moving and such during this time.  We are not fully sure how this will affect the already stagnant prices that we are seeing around Orange County.

The current “homes for sale” inventory dropped to its bottom of 2011 and will only shed more homes until we make it to 2012. It will steadily keep decreasing as more homeowners pull out of the market during this time of the year, the active listing inventory dropped below the 10,000 home mark. The only other time it was below that threshold was at the start of 2011 when it began with 9,987 residential properties on the list. After losing 174 homes in the past twenty days, the inventory now stands at 9,869, another 2% overall decrease in the count of homes for sale in the O.C. market. The inventory will bottom out even more throughout the end of the year and next year will be our best hope for a stronger foundation and improved home value.

The market has struggled this year, with stability being about the only compliment you could offer.  Orange County is hoping to find some more valued in their properties next year, the trend usually shows a stronger market and more home sales during spring.  2012 should start improving mortgage and the financial situation as well, if we do not see those areas improve then the year will most likely remain rather sluggish sadly.

But let us be clear, Orange County is not the only market being seriously affected with rapidly decreasing home sales, it is really the entire United States.  Dataquick released a new survey this past week that shows we are at a 22 week low for US based home sales.

• Top 98 markets’ median home selling price of $180,000 — that is flat vs. the previous week; down 5.30% vs. a year ago; and down 17.10% vs. the same week three years ago.
• Pricing momentum — based on average median prices — in the last three weeks was down 0.1% vs. the three previous weeks.
• Top 98 market’s total home sales of 172,934 — that is down 1.55% vs. the previous week; up 4.50% vs. a year ago; and down 12.30% vs. the same week three years ago.
• Last time the pace was slower was 22 weeks ago, June 6.
• Sales pace — average weekly actvity — in the last three weeks was down 3.5% vs. the three previous weeks.
• Since the start of 2009, when this index’s history starts, these DQ98 markets averaged 182,623 sales in the trailing 30-day periods.